


Nobody Goes to Nebraska for the Thai Food

by weasleytook



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 07:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5119790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weasleytook/pseuds/weasleytook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>reponse to this prompt: "AU where nebraska has anything to offer the scientific community & sheldon moves there for a research project or something, instead of penny moving to LA"</p><p>This went in a direction I was not expecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nobody Goes to Nebraska for the Thai Food

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galfridian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galfridian/gifts).



Penny stands in her doorway, watching the new neighbor direct his movers with orders so specific that it exhausts her just listening to it. It’s all: couch over here, no, not there, four more inches to the right, no, there must be exactly eleven inches between them, blah blah blah and so on. She hopes he tips these guys generously.

He eventually notices her standing there and looks somewhat startled, as if he’s never seen a human woman before. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

She expects him to say something else, but he doesn’t, so she continues. “I’m Penny, I’ll be your across the hall neighbor, I guess.”

“Dr. Sheldon Cooper. I just want to state from the outset that I will not put up with neighbors who violate the rules laid down in the lease agreement.”

Her eyes widen because, well, what a _gem_. “Got it. So, you’re not from here, are you?”

“No.”

She can tell. Most of the guys in her small Nebraska town are ex-jocks, farmers, hard drinking rednecks or a combination of all three. None of them are whatever this guy’s about.

“What do you do?”

He pales a little. He’s already pale, so it’s just a subtle change, but she notices it. “I can’t talk about that.”

He turns away from her and steps inside his apartment to bark more orders at the movers, and she wonders: can’t or won’t?

 

###

 

He doesn’t talk much when she runs in to him in the hallway and he’s definitely not into niceties or small talk. But just by peeking at stuff he carries up from the mailboxes or the packages left on his doorstep, she realizes he’s into science and nerdy things, not subjects she knows anything about.

Two weeks after he’s moved in, she’s returning from work and he inquires about the pair of roller skates she’s carrying over her shoulder.

“It’s for work. I’m a car hop at Sonic. Only on the weekends.”

“And the rest of the week?”

“I’m a bank teller. At least until I figure out what the hell I’m going to do with my life. I thought about moving to Los Angeles, becoming an actress, but –“

“I lived in California for a few years. There’s a lot of –“

Penny fills in the blank and finishes his thought, “I know, there’s a lot of girls like me with a dumb dream about being a movie star. Which is kinda why I didn’t go.”

She has a problem with follow-through, when it comes to everything. School, acting, work, relationships and even her inability to keep a nail polish color for more than two days at a time.

Sheldon just says, “Mm-hmm”, then heads back into his apartment.

Penny mutters to herself, “Well, that was yet another stimulating conversation.”

 

###

 

Another week goes by and she’s alone in her apartment surrounded by too much Thai food. And it’s not even good Thai food, because, you know, _Nebraska_. She gets tired of being alone sometimes, most of her high school friends moved away and she stayed behind. Sometimes she goes out with the people from the bank, but she doesn’t have any close friends, and she hasn’t had a real relationship in nearly a year, just a few casual things here and there.

Penny doesn’t know if it’s a good idea, but she hauls her entire takeout order across the hall and knocks on Sheldon’s door. There’s a long pause and he answers it, obviously surprised. “Hello.”

“Listen, I ordered all of this Thai food, which is admittedly not great, but I’m kind of sick of eating alone and thought maybe I’d do the neighborly thing and ask if you wanted to eat with me.”

He opens the door further and quickly goes to work getting plates out of his cabinets. She takes a look around now that he’s unpacked, and sees a lot of Star Wars and superheroes everywhere. Her first thought is that Sheldon definitely isn’t her usual type, which she immediately shuts down because it’s not like she’s attracted to him, she doesn’t even know him.

She finally learns more about him over dinner, so her plan was a success there. He tells her he’s a physicist, from Texas originally, although he most recently worked at CalTech. He still doesn’t tell her where he works now or what he’s doing in Nebraska, but she doesn’t press the issue.

He’s definitely unusual. Pedantic, way too literal, fussy, obsessive-compulsive and obnoxiously brilliant. But at least he’s interesting and doesn’t end every sentence with the word ‘dude’ like the guys she usually meets.

They talk all through dinner and for an hour afterwards, and find common ground with their messed up families, so they’re different from each other, but not completely different.

She finally asks the all-important question, “So, did you have a girlfriend that you left behind back in Pasadena?”

He freezes and she sputters out, “Or boyfriend? Sorry, I should have given options.”

“Neither. I tend to focus all of my time on more important matters than… _that_.”

“Oh.”

So he didn’t want to talk about his job, or relationships, which made him the kind of puzzle Penny wanted to figure out. Maybe he wasn’t her type, sure, but maybe she needed a new type.

Sheldon deftly changes the subject and points to a game controller on his coffee table. “Have you ever played Halo before?”

 

###

 

It becomes a regular thing. Three nights a week, they eat dinner together, play video games, watch a movie or Sheldon attempts to introduce her to things like _Doctor Who_ or classic _Star Trek_ episodes, and she tries, and fails, to introduce him to things she likes.

She still has no idea where he works, until three months into their friendship, when she gets a frantic set of knocks at her door one morning. Penny quickly throws on a robe and opens the door to him.

“My usual ride to work didn’t show up.”

“I don’t understand why you don’t drive. A guy as smart as you should have no trouble operating a car. If Homer who works at the deli across the street can do it, so can you.”

He is clearly annoyed with her, because he’s doing this head tilted, mouth-in-a-straight-line thing. “Now is not the time. Can you give me a ride to work?”

“I can, but you’ll have to actually tell me where you work.”

“I work… at a farm.”

The way he says it, all slow and unsure, like that’s not all there is to it, pings Penny’s radar immediately.

“I don’t buy that, but you will have to be more specific.”

“It’s off of the 75. I’ll show you where.”

She narrows her eyes suspiciously. Penny grew up around farmers, and Sheldon Cooper is no farmer. “Give me five minutes to get dressed.”

She throws on jeans and an old Cornhuskers t-shirt, then leads Sheldon downstairs to her beat-up car. It’s not much to look at it, but it gets her where she needs to go. He complains the whole ride out there, about all of the various mechanical and safety issues that could be wrong with her car. After the tenth complaint, she just turns her radio up louder.

He points out some abandoned corn silos ahead and tells her this is his stop. “Just drop me off at the gate.”

Penny pulls up to the gate and the place looks completely abandoned, haunted almost. Before he steps out of the car she puts her hand on his arm. “Okay, so what the hell do you do?”

“I can’t talk about it.”

She won’t let go of his arm, even as she looks around for any hint of a clue. “Is it something to do with aliens?”

Sheldon’s left eye begins to twitch as he answers, “Don’t be absurd.”

He’s lying. She knows he’s lying. Maybe it’s not aliens, but he’s definitely covering something up. She decides to let go of his arm, but she’s definitely not letting go of this subject.

She may lack follow-through in other areas of her life, but she’s going to find out what a physicist is doing in an abandoned corn silo if it kills her.

**Author's Note:**

> So, aliens maybe? Scully?


End file.
